Picture: at local farmers market - Nicholas drawing a plant cell, magnified 7 times
Wow! So much for my weekly blogs! It's been 4 months! I was off to a good start and then everything went down hill with Nicholas getting sick, Isabella getting sick from her immunizations for 2 weeks and then me with my kidney issues and surgery! How does one homeschool going through all that? And take care of an infant on top of it?
I do have to say Homeschooling is HARD!!! Granted, my son is 4 and technically preschool and really doesn't need a curriculum and isn't being monitored by the state or anything. And it's still hard! I'm doing this because he loves to learn and as practice to see if I can do this long term. I don't know if I can. I want bonding time with my daughter. Nicholas is such a delight and a self starter wanting to learn everything. However, he wants an audience and wants someone to listen to his every word - whether it's about the Zeppilin Airships(1 to who knows how many they built - oh yeah, he does), Factorials, Hieroglyphics, Periodic table of elements, etc....If I walk upstairs to change Isabella's diaper or something and he's just talked about elements 1-7 and I tell him I'll be down in 5 minutes and to keep going on his own....I will come back downstairs and he's just sitting there waiting for me not having done a single thing...just waiting and says "ready for element number 8 Mommy?". It's exhausting! But I love him dearly and I want to make sure he gets what he needs.
Even though I haven't posted in the last few months and I can't say I've been actively homeschooling, Nicholas is still on the go with learning. He wakes up thinking and just wants to talk about things and look things up and type it all in excel or write it on a chalkboard. As mentioned before, he's learning about the Hindenberg and all the other German airships. He watches videos, looks up pictures of each one and gets upset if he can't find one...I just tell him there weren't many cameras in the early 1900's and they forgot to take a camera to get a picture before it blew up. He seems to be okay with this response. He's reading several books on airships and the Hindenberg. Last night at bedtime he read a Level 3 reader story book on airships. The coolest thing is that the guy who built the Hindenberg, his first name is "COUNT"! How much does Nicholas love this? He got into airships because of his current love of the Periodic Table of elements. He is studying them all and is interested in protons, neutrons, atomic weight, shell pattern of electrons, etc...Hydrogen, the first element, was used in airships before they knew it was flammable and not good to use so this is what got his interest started in airships.
In math, he's enjoying using excel and creating formula's, doing division, factorials, and decimal calculations. A few week's ago he emailed Bill Gates about why excel will only let him calculate powers of 10 to 190 zero's and not past that. Every day he has asked me to check my email for a response and wanting to know if Bill Gates has fixed this so he can do more. Poor Kid. I keep telling him that Bill gets so many emails a day that we probably won't get a response. I told him yesterday that we can try to email customer service, and his response was "So they will tell Bill to fix it?" So Cute!
We've also started growing plants. Nicholas loves this. We're growing snow peas, Mint, bean sprouts, and soon broccoli. It's been really exciting. Unfortunately, the bean sprout was overcome by ants and died after repotting. But....it got us to start the other ones and now he LOVES going to the Green Thumb Nursery. It's a fun little hobby for him and it's getting us better at keeping plants alive. Maybe next time Ill post some pictures of the plants he grew from seeds :)
Nicholas is finally getting into story books. He's been mostly interested in non-fiction and reference books, studying facts, etc...but he's getting into stories which has been exciting. If it's funny he will like it. He's currently enjoying Captain Underpants, Where the Sidewalk Ends, and Green Eggs and Ham(at which he says it should technically be called Green Eggs and Green Ham, per the picture).
As far as schooling for Kindergarten, it is coming up soon. I have been doing research for years on what will be the best fit for him. A new FREE Montessori charter school in Vista was approved last night and will open in the Fall. I have emailed them for more info and accommodations. The Principal and Director of Elementary Education for our local public school is arranging a meeting for us in the coming weeks to meet Nicholas and go over his IQ test. Afterwards, they will discuss ways to accommodate him and get back to us on what they can offer. I'm impressed with them trying to work on something and being proactive. There is another free charter that is part of the public school system that we will look into...however, it's a homeschool option where he would go to classes once a week for enrichment(art, latin,etc...). I would provide math/science at home through a curriculum they will provide for us. The plus about this charter is that we can accelerate to whatever grade necessary for math/science whereas other charters require kinder curriculum only if you're in kinder. You can't skip to a higher math or science. Of course, these free charters are by lottery so even if we wanted to get in, it's not a slam dunk.
For those that are interested, attached is a gifted scale showing IQ's from an average person on up. There are 5 levels. This was sent to me yesterday and was an interesting read.
http://www.talentigniter.com/ruf-estimates
I am not going to share my son's score but he is in Level 5. I don't say this to brag. I say this to show how different he is. A level 5 range compared to an average person is the same as comparing an average person to a mentally slow learning disabled person. This paints a picture of how different my son is and why it would be difficult to put him in a traditional school. No one will get him, know how to teach him, know how to be friends with him. In my opinion, he will be uncomfortable and why would I put my son in such a situation? It is my goal to find other level 4 and 5's in this world so he can have same age peer friends. This is one tough quest but I am up for the challenge! Not only does finding these people help him but it helps me with support because these other parents understand what we're going through. It's not all easy-peasy living with a child like this. It is the hardest thing I have gone through(well, except maybe my kidney stone surgery - LOL). It's been a challenge since he was born. And it will be a challenge for me until he turns 18. Afterwards, I'm sure it will be a challenge for him the rest of his life. I also want to point out that Nicholas has no idea he is "gifted", does not know his IQ, and does not know he is a member of Mensa. He does not need to know this. He is just a kid and thinks he is playing all day. I'm the one doing research and trying to understand him and how to help him and keep him a happy boy!
With this advanced academia, comes a big delay in social and gross motor skills. We're happy to report though that he received a bike(with training wheels) from Santa and he is really enjoying it. I'm not able to take him with the baby but Chris takes him on weekends and he always comes back happy. I think he is proud that he is doing so well. He is slowly getting better with gross motor and it's all really exciting. Socially, he is a social butterfly with adults and any older child that will sit and listen to him(he actually doesn't stop talking)...but with same age peers he has no interest. I'm hoping this will change in time as we have found a couple other folks with similar children so maybe after spending more time with them some friendship bonds can form. I hear from some people, "just put him in kinder for socializing. who cares about the academics part since he already knows it". I get what you're saying but I just don't think it would work for him because it's not that he's shy and needs to learn to interact with people. It's that he can't relate to them because they are so different. I think it might cause more damage than good. Still thinking on this one. I love how strangers get on our case about this one...they don't know our son at all. And I've heard some people get real huffy puffy to me about this. So I try hard to avoid the topic. It's tough because everyone you meet asks where he goes to preschool, why he doesn't go to preschool, and where he's going to go to Kinder and when you say he might not go to the local public school and they ask why I haven't thought up a good response. The true reply just gets an awkward silence or a defensive snotty remark where they say "just put him in for socialization". I think the snottiness is in their voice because they think I'm bragging...which I'm not. (sigh) I just need to avoid the topic somehow. Maybe I can somehow make my phone ring and pretend talk and then say "excuse me, I have to take this important call" and run away. LOL!
Okay, so I think this is long enough for today...and my kids will be up soon so lots of caffeine is necessary as I've been up since 4am! What's on our plate for today? It's going to be nice out so I'm thinking a trip to the park/playground....Nicholas loves the sandbox/sand & water wheel, walk around the lake, picnic lunch. Thanks so much for reading and if anyone has fun science projects I can do with N please share. My go to lately has been giving him little cups of water and food coloring and he mixes them up to create primary, secondary colors, and of course he enjoys mixing them all to make brown and adding water to make them super light. He's getting bored after a few times so now I needs something else new and easy so I can cook/clean while he plays!
